MAKE MOST OF THE KNOWLEDGE NETWORK, JOIN ACADEMIC RESEARCH FOUNDATION

As global investors diversify their portfolios across currencies and national stock markets, the exchange rate risk and its association with the local stock market is an important component of the overall portfolio risk. This paper empirically analyses the effect of exchange rate volatility on stock market return volatility from India's perspective, applying ARCH and GARCH estimation on daily data of the BSE SENSEX stock market index and the exchange rate of US dollar/rupee, British pound/rupee, Euros/rupee for six years from January 2010 to December 2015. The estimates reveal that the volatility of the Euro/rupee exchange rate has a significant positive effect on BSE SENSEX return volatility while the effect of the volatility of the US dollar/rupee and British pound/rupee exchange rates are insignificantly negative. The larger GARCH parameter over the ARCH term implies that the volatility of stock returns is more sensitive to its own lagged values than to its new surprises. There exists a highly persistent effect of shocks to the BSE SENSEX stock returns and the response to volatility decays at a slower rate.

Keywords: Exchange rate, stock market return, volatility, ARCH and GARCH estimation

This study was an evaluation of the determinants of hedging strategies and performance of the manufacturing firms in Nigeria. The objective was to determine the effect of interest rate hedging and currency hedging on Average Manufacturing Capacity Utilization (MCUT) in the manufacturing sector in Nigeria from 1990 to 2021. Ex postfacto research design was adopted for the study. Data on the proxies for the dependent and independent variables were collected from the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) Statistical Bulletin 2021, and the socioeconomic report by National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) (various years). The data was analysed using trend and multiple regression analysis. The results revealed that interest rate hedging and foreign currency hedging have inverse and statistically significant effect on Average Manufacturing Capacity Utiilisation (MCUT) of the manufacturing sector in Nigeria. These independent variables explained 41.91 per cent of the variations in the performance of the manufacturing sector. It was concluded that the determinants of hedging strategies have significant effect on the performance of the manufacturing sector in Nigeria. Recommendations made include that there is need for interest rate regulation, and proper foreign exchange management to enhance hedging activities and catalyse improved performances in the manufacturing sector.

Keywords: Hedging, interest rate, foreign currency, Average capacity utilization.

This paper aimed at examining the effectiveness of microfinance loans extended to rural women by Gadarif Microfinance Institution (GMI), in Gadarif State Sudan, with the purpose of empowering socioeconomic conditions of rural women. By empowerment we mean the ability of women to possess the necessary resources to enable them to participate viably in economic and social decisions, at the family and community levels. For realization of this purpose, the study used a mixed approach for data collection; i.e. paper–pencilquestionnaire which was used for the collection of quantitative data. Moreover, the qualitative approach was used, relying on Focus Discussion Group (FDG) and direct observations.

The collected data, was, analyzed by using statistical methods (AMOS). After analyzing the collected data, the study ascertained many findings supplemented with effective suggestions as corrective measures. The worth noting finding is that, microfinance projects were contributed significantly to increasing the economic and social empowerment of rural women in Gadarif state, and this was evidently depicted and supplemented by the results of the statistical analysis, which confirmed that, the results matched the hypothesis of the study, and more importantly, the results of the qualitative analysis supported the
quantitative results with the presence of some problems that to some extent limited to the wide range operations of economic and social empowerment of rural women at macro level. Therefore, an immediate tackling of these problems is called for to ensure an effective comprehensive implementation of microfinance projects in the country at large.

Keywords: Microfinance, institution, empowerment, socioeconomic, rural women

The proposed study is an attempt to determine whether a relationship exists between rainfall index and NSE Nifty index. The study used the monthly mean rainfall data and monthly closing price of Nifty index. The study applied Augmented DickeyFuller (ADF) test, correlation analysis, the GARCH (1,1) model, and the Granger Causality test to analyse the interrelationship. The results of correlation matrix show that there is no interrelationship between the two variables. The GARCH (1,1) model found that the NSE Nifty index is not affected by the rainfall index and Granger Causality test displays that rainfall index does not Granger Cause the Nifty index. According to the authors’ knowledge, this is the first empirical study to determine the interrelationship between the rainfall index and the Nifty Index over a longer period of time.

Keywords: Rainfall index, NSE Nifty index, GARCH (1,1) model, Granger Causality test and Distinct asset.

In this research, correlation analysis and pairwise granger causality techniques were applied in the examination of causal link between long term investment portfolio and economic growth in Nigeria. the study employed annualized secondary data obtained from the central bank of Nigeria (2020)’s statistical bulletin covering a period of 40 years (1981-2020). empirical findings of this study indicate strong positive correlation between long term investment portfolio and economic growth in Nigeria with an evidence of a long run relationship also established between the two variables. furthermore, there is an evidence of a unidirectional causality flow from economic growth to long term investment portfolio in Nigeria. It can therefore be concluded that economic growth leads long term investment portfolio and not vice versa. this implies that increase in the productive capacity of the economy, reflected in the rise in aggregate demand tend to stimulate demand for long term investment capital (portfolio). this finding is in line with the postulate of the demandfollowing hypothesis which advocates that economic growth stimulates financial development of the country. this study reveals the need for the Nigerian government to encourage more growthinduced policies and programmes in the country; particularly, policy frameworks aimed at stimulating aggregate demand should be vigorously pursued

by the government in close and cooperative partnership with the organized private sector.

Keywords: Capital market, causality, economic growth, long term investment, portfolio